Hi ladies,
I have a Q regarding exercising. I have always been an active person except during the last few months of my pregnancy I was forced to take it easy. Now I am trying to get back into things but it seems like my milk supply goes down if I run too much. Any one else has experienced this?? I am kinda' sad because I want to bfeed and stay in shape.

When I breastfed my son 6 years ago, I, too, noticed a decrease in breastmilk from doing cardio. I've read that alot of exercise can do this. I just toned it down and started doing it only a few times a week, for maybe 10 minutes at a time initially, and then worked my way up to 20-30. I was doing the NordicTrack and walking and I think I started when he was around 3-4 months. I ended up nursing him until he was 21 months old and was walking 3-4 times a week for an hour, so my supply never went away, but I think if you start doing your old routine (if you did alot), you'll notice it diminish quite quickly. Just start out slow and make sure you drink even more water.

Hi hhb,
I was wondering about that. There is no evidence that cardio could hurt bfeeding but it seems our experience tells us a different story. It will be a delicate balance for me- I don't feel good when I don't exercise and eat a lot. So, I will have to do what I can to get reasonable workout and still bfeed. Thanks to IVF and a risky pregnancy I did not do a whole lot for a year and now I am just itching to get back into running etc.

Deepa, I have been doing a bit of reading on this topic I still have a few months until delivery but would like to get back into shape. I have been told and read that if you are BFing to not resume excersise for the first 6 weeks and then as hhb has said you need to ease in gradually.

Well, I am finding out that I need to eat MORE. I am the type that does not eat unless I am hungry. But once I started eating more and drinking more liquids, my situation really improved regardless of the exercise factor. i.e, if I feel hungry after a run, I am unlikely to produce milk. But drink a smoothies w/protein while running and no problems afterwards.

The extra food and liquid makes sense just read last night that while BFing at least for some time you should still be consuming your extra preganancy calories of 300 a day to help keep up production even when working out. If you notice no change in your weight with the excersie and mantaining you added calorie intake once you reintroduce excersise you should gradually cut back 100 calories at a time. Let me know how things go!

Aliann09 wrote:The extra food and liquid makes sense just read last night that while BFing at least for some time you should still be consuming your extra preganancy calories of 300 a day to help keep up production even when working out. If you notice no change in your weight with the excersie and mantaining you added calorie intake once you reintroduce excersise you should gradually cut back 100 calories at a time. Let me know how things go!

Hi Aliann09,
May be I should be cutting back but in my case, there is a clear correlation between the calories intake and the milk supply. So, at 8 mo. post-partum I am not cutting back at all. I am still at 112-113 lb and people are telling me I look better with a few extra pounds. I used to be 105-110 at 5'4''. But I did not stop exercising. Even if it is just 45 min. run. I try to go every day. If I can't, every other day. Hope this helps. Lot of people that I know said that this was not a problem for them. But they all have a few extra pounds already.